Conventionally, a storage system receives requests to store, retrieve, and modify data from various sources. For example, a first device can request that a word processing file be stored on a storage system. A second device can request to read a previously stored web-formatted file, such as HTML, and display it on the requesting device's display. As devices that produce storage operation requests proliferate, sometimes with multiple requests originating from the same device, it is difficult to choose which request to satisfy. Prior solutions include satisfying the first request to be received by the storage system and subsequently creating a queue of incoming requests. Alternatively, the requests may be collected and sorted by a network router or gateway for prioritization before the storage system satisfies the storage operation request. These solutions however, incur processing and hardware overhead when managing the prioritization of the storage operation requests. There is a need to be able to differentiate and satisfy storage operation requests with a simple and efficient mechanism.